Concorde alterations to cost £17m

British Airways' modification programme to ensure Concorde flies again is to cost £17m, the airline has revealed. BA hopes to put the supersonic aircraft back into passenger service by the spring.

Work has now started at Heathrow airport on fitting new linings to fuel tanks on Alpha Foxtrot - one of BA's seven Concordes. The linings, a compound of rubber and kevlar - which is used in bullet-proof vests - are designed to contain the fuel should the wing skin be punctured.

Such fitments should prevent any repetition of the devastating fire that brought down the Air France Concorde which crashed near Paris last July, killing all 109 on board as well as four people on the ground.

It will take a BA team of 40 engineers between eight and 10 weeks to carry out alterations to each of the seven Concordes. While tests on the ground are conducted in southern France by Air France, BA will do airborne tests using Alpha Foxtrot. If there are no complications, both airlines will get back their Concorde airworthiness certificates and passenger services can begin again.

'This is very much a team effort and everyone on both sides of the Channel is working really hard to get Concorde back into the air,' said Concorde's chief pilot Captain Mike Bannister, 51.

He added: 'We are hoping that a BA Concorde can take off at the same time as an Air France one when commercial services resume - it would underscore how well we have all worked together. Hopefully, I shall be flying the first test flight and the first passenger flight and I'm really looking forward to it.'